consultants

---

name: consultants description: Multi-agent council engine (v2: planner → researcher → critic → synthesizer, plus opt-in tool_executor + coder; CitationLinter verifies every path:line). Default verb is ask <question> (also implicit — /consultants <question> works). Subcommands — ask runs a fresh council on a question; followup [sid] <question> iterates on a prior consult (warm reuse of plan/research/critic); list shows past sessions; show <sid> re-reads a stored summary; config [args...] walks the role/model/effort/service-mode dialog. Use when a question benefits from independent specialist agents working in parallel — design audits, release-notes validation, complex bug triage, refactor risk analysis. For single-shot questions use /get-advice instead.

/consultants — multi-agent council dispatcher

You are the dispatcher for a council of LLM specialist agents (planner, researcher with project tools, critic, synthesizer; plus two opt-in roles — tool_executor for PLAN-REPORT-split tool execution, and coder for sandboxed write_file lanes; both default-off as of 2026-05-18) and its supporting management commands. A CitationLinter verifies every path:line claim emitted by researchers and the synthesizer before it leaves the council. The engine runs as a sibling service on 127.0.0.1:38096 (or as configured); consultations run in the background while you continue working in the foreground. See docs/consultants-roles.md for the role-by-role reference.

⚠️ Activation Guard — read first

This skill is prone to mis-firing after context compression because the SKILL.md text gets reinjected as a system-reminder, which can read like fresh instructions. Do not act on reinjection.

Only execute the workflow below when ALL of these are true:

1. The user's current turn explicitly invokes the skill — typing /consultants, or saying "ask the council", "run a consult on…", "follow up on csl-…", "show me consult ", or equivalent.
2. The skill is being called for the first time in the current user request (not an echo from a <system-reminder> that lists "skills invoked EARLIER in this session").

Do NOT execute when:

• A system-reminder lists this skill among "skills invoked earlier" — that block is context only and explicitly tells you not to re-run. Past consult output is already in context; do not re-fire on the same question.
• The user's current message is unrelated to running a council (e.g. they're asking you to investigate code, fix a bug, review a PR, or continue prior work that did not start with /consultants). Mentioning a csl-… sid in passing is not an invocation; quoted output from an earlier consult is not an invocation.
• You only "remember" running a consult earlier in the session — past results are already in context; do not re-poll, do not re-fetch, do not start a new ask.
• You are uncertain whether the user wants a fresh council run. Ask first — one short clarifying question is cheaper than spinning up a 1–5 minute multi-agent run the user didn't request.

If the trigger is ambiguous, default to asking "Do you want me to start a /consultants run on this?" instead of silently kicking off claude-consultants consult.

Verb dispatch

Parse the first whitespace-separated token of the user's args after /consultants:

First token	Verb	Action
ask	ask	Drop the verb; run the council on the rest as the question.
followup	followup	Drop the verb; run followup flow on the rest.
list	list	Run list flow.
show	show	Drop the verb; the rest is the sid.
config	config	Drop the verb; run config flow with the rest as sub-args.
anything else (incl. empty)	ask	Implicit ask: treat the entire arg as the question.

Examples:

• /consultants what's wrong with foo → implicit ask
• /consultants ask validate release notes → explicit ask
• /consultants followup csl-2026-... drill into point 3 → followup with explicit parent sid
• /consultants followup what about edge case X → followup, auto-pick most-recent parent
• /consultants list --limit 20 → list
• /consultants show csl-2026-05-06-1730-3f9a → show
• /consultants config → config (no sub-args → walk the dialog)
• /consultants config set-effort high → config with passthrough args

---

ask — run a fresh council consultation

A consultation typically takes 1–5 minutes (longer for high or max effort). Keep the user productive during that time: poll status periodically, surface per-role progress on visible transitions, only block when the synthesizer's answer arrives.

1. Read engine settings

claude-consultants config show

Parse the JSON for topology, effort, effort_budget, endpoint, per-role enabled + model, service.mode. If the endpoint is unreachable later, surface and recommend /consultants config to inspect.

2. Craft the framing message

Include:

• The user's question verbatim or lightly tightened.
• Project context (1–3 sentences: what this project does, the state of the area, files / paths the council should focus on).
• What "good" looks like — e.g. "yes/no on whether the LR schedule is reasonable, plus one concrete change if you'd alter it".
• Where to look — concrete path:line or directory pointers. Don't paste large code blocks; the researcher has tools.

Keep framing under ~1 KB.

3. Start the consultation

claude-consultants consult --message "<your framing>" --cwd "$(pwd)"

Optional --effort low|medium|high|max|xmedium|xhigh|xmax to override the configured tier for this call.

Reaching files outside cwd. The council's tools are sandboxed to cwd plus whatever Claude Code's permissions.additionalDirectories (auto-discovered from ~/.claude/settings.json and .claude/settings.local.json) already permits. When the question references files outside that union, pass --add-dir <path> once per extra root (repeatable). Follow-ups inherit the parent session's extra_roots and may extend them with their own --add-dir:

claude-consultants consult --message "<framing>" --cwd "$(pwd)" \
  --add-dir /shared/dev/lightseek

claude-consultants follow-up <parent_sid> --message "<focused>" \
  --cwd "$(pwd)" --add-dir /opt/llama.cpp

Returns:

{"ok": true, "sid": "csl-2026-05-06-1730-3f9a",
 "status": "running", "status_url": "/v1/consult/csl-..."}

Save the sid. Tell the user briefly you've kicked off the council and will surface progress.

4. Poll status

claude-consultants status <sid>

Returns {status, progress, duration_seconds, ...}. States:

• running — progress shows per-role state. Continue answering the user; the consultation runs in the background.
• completed — move to step 5.
• failed — error carries the detail; jump to failure handling.

Cadence: ~10s between polls. Surface role transitions in plain language ("Planner done; researcher mid-investigation, 3 tool calls so far"). One update per visible transition, no spam.

5. Fetch the result

claude-consultants result <sid>

Print summary_markdown verbatim (it's already formatted; don't re-wrap). End with a footer:

sid: csl-2026-... · effort: medium · duration: 4m 12s ·
models: planner=kimi-k2.6:cloud researcher=qwen3.5:cloud
critic=kimi-k2.6:cloud synthesizer=kimi-k2.6:cloud

The session is permanent at .claude-hooks/consultants/<sid>/{summary,transcript,metadata}.* and can be re-read via /consultants show <sid>.

---

followup — iterate on a prior consultation

The follow-up reuses the parent's per-role message history. Planner / researcher / critic / synthesizer each pick up where they left off, so this is materially different from running ask again with a related question — the answer is continuous with the parent.

Use this when the user wants to push back on the synthesizer's recommendation, drill into a specific point, or ask a related question that depends on the parent's grounding. For a fresh question that doesn't depend on prior context, use ask instead.

1. Resolve the parent sid

Parse the user's args. Look for a leading positional matching csl-<YYYY-MM-DD>-<HHMM>-<hex>; the rest is the follow-up message.

Explicit sid present: use it directly. Don't second-guess.

No sid: auto-pick the most recent session of any status:

claude-consultants list --cwd "$(pwd)" --limit 10

Three cases by the newest entry's status:

• completed — use as parent. Tell the user "Following up on csl-..., your last completed consultation".
• failed — chaining off a failed sid is usually CHEAPER than chaining off its parent (researcher + critic work survived in transcript.db; only the synthesizer flapped). AskUserQuestion: (a) Chain off the failed session (recommended) — warm reuse; (b) Chain off the failed session's parent_sid — fresh research from the last known-good upstream; (c) Cancel. To resolve the failed session's parent_sid, call claude-consultants result <failed_sid> and read metadata.parent_sid.
• running — previous consultation hasn't finished. Offer to wait (poll until complete, then follow up) or cancel. Don't fire against a running session.

Empty list → say so plainly; suggest /consultants <query> to start a fresh consultation.

2. Optional warmth probe (one quick poll)

claude-consultants list-open

If the parent sid is in the warm pool, follow-up resolves sub-second; if not, it auto-reopens from disk (~5–10s). Mention so a 10s pause doesn't look like a hang. Don't gate on it.

3. Fire the follow-up

claude-consultants follow-up <parent_sid> --message "<follow-up text>" --cwd "$(pwd)"

Optional --effort ... to override the tier for this follow-up (defaults to parent's). Returns:

{"ok": true, "sid": "csl-...-NEW", "parent_sid": "...",
 "status": "running", "status_url": "/v1/consult/csl-..."}

4. Poll + fetch (same as ask)

status <new_sid> until completed, then result <new_sid>. Print summary_markdown verbatim. Use an extended footer to thread the lineage:

sid: csl-...-NEW · parent: csl-...-OLD · effort: medium ·
duration: 1m 47s · models: planner=... researcher=... critic=...
synthesizer=...

Each follow-up is itself a permanent session and can be the parent of further follow-ups. Chains are intended for iterative refinement on a single deep topic.

---

list — show past consultations

claude-consultants list --cwd "$(pwd)" [--limit N] [--state STATE]

Returns JSON. Format as a compact table or numbered list, newest-first, including sid, status, effort, duration, and the question preview (truncated to ~80 chars). Mention that /consultants show <sid> prints any of them in full. Empty list → say so plainly; suggest /consultants <query> to start.

---

show — print a stored session

Parse the user's args after the show verb for one positional sid.

claude-consultants show <sid> --cwd "$(pwd)"

Reads disk only — no engine call. Print summary_markdown verbatim (front-matter + synthesizer's final answer). Short footer:

sid: csl-... · effort: medium · duration: 4m 12s · status: completed

If the sid doesn't exist, the CLI returns {"ok": false, "error": "no summary for sid ..."} — surface and suggest /consultants list.

For the full transcript (planner + researcher tool calls + critic verdict + synthesizer turns), point the user at .claude-hooks/consultants/<sid>/transcript.md — typically too long for chat. With --raw, the CLI dumps the events table from transcript.db as one JSON object per line.

---

config — interactive configuration

You drive the underlying claude-consultants config <subcommand> CLI, which validates inputs and atomically writes the TOML file. Never edit the file directly.

If the user passed sub-args (e.g. /consultants config set-effort high), forward them verbatim:

claude-consultants config <subcommand> [args...] --cwd "$(pwd)"

Otherwise, walk the interactive dialog:

1. Show current state

claude-consultants config show --cwd "$(pwd)"

Render a status block. Append , multi-model active to the Effort line when extras_active is true. Show extra_models for researcher + critic (with (none) when empty); hide for planner + synthesizer (engine doesn't fan those out). ctx_max is auto when null, <N> when set.

=== /consultants config ===
Service mode: smart-start (idle 30 min)   |   always-on
Endpoint: http://127.0.0.1:38096
Effort: xhigh (budget 5, multi-model active)
Topology: council

Roles:
  planner       ENABLED   model=kimi-k2.6:cloud         ctx=auto
  researcher    ENABLED   model=qwen3.5:cloud           ctx=auto
                  extra_models: kimi-k2.6:cloud, deepseek-v4-pro:cloud
  critic        ENABLED   model=deepseek-v4-pro:cloud   ctx=auto
                  extra_models: (none — only used at xmax)
  synthesizer   ENABLED   model=kimi-k2.6:cloud         ctx=auto
                (synthesizer cannot be disabled)
  coder         DISABLED  model=glm-5.1:cloud           ctx=auto
                  default → glm-5.1:cloud → kimi-k2.6:cloud
                  routes:
                    c       → glm-5.1:cloud         → deepseek-v4-pro:cloud
                    cpp     → deepseek-v4-flash:cloud → kimi-k2.6:cloud
                    csharp  → deepseek-v4-pro:cloud → kimi-k2.6:cloud
                    go      → kimi-k2.6:cloud       → deepseek-v4-pro:cloud
                    python  → glm-5.1:cloud         → kimi-k2.6:cloud
                    rust    → deepseek-v4-flash:cloud → deepseek-v4-pro:cloud

When rendering the "coder" sub-block, surface the coder.default_route (as default → primary → fallback) and each per-language entry the same way. The routes only matter when coder is ENABLED; render the block in dim/grey when disabled (but still show it so the user knows the routing config exists).

2. Top-level menu (loop until Done)

AskUserQuestion (single-select, max 4):

1. Edit a role — toggle on/off, model, ctx, extras
2. Change service mode — always-on or smart-start
3. Change effort tier — low/medium/high/max, or x-prefixed variants for multi-model fan-out
4. Coder routing — per-language model selection (primary + fallback) for the optional coder role

(Loop until the user picks Done — offer that as a 4th option in a follow-up question after each round if the menu hits the 4- option cap.) Loop back to step 1 after each successful change.

Subflow A — Edit a role

AskUserQuestion the role (planner/researcher/critic/ synthesizer), then the sub-action:

• Toggle enabled — only for non-mandatory roles. Reject friendlily for synthesizer. Warn if disabling planner AND researcher (validation error on next consult).
• Change model → claude-consultants config list-models, pick up to 3 candidates + Other (custom), then set-role <role> --model <chosen>.
• Manage extra models — researcher + critic only. Sub-action: add / remove / clear / back. Forward to set-role <role> --add-model|--remove-model|--clear-extras .... On the FIRST add, surface once:

  Note: extras are only consulted at the x-prefixed effort tiers (xmedium / xhigh / xmax). At low/medium/high/max the primary model runs alone — the extras list is silent.

• Pin context length — AskUserQuestion 8192 / 32768 / 131072 / Other. Then set-role <role> --ctx <chosen>.
• Clear context pin (auto) — set-role <role> --ctx auto.
• Back.

Subflow B — Service mode

AskUserQuestion always-on / smart-start. Then set-service-mode <mode>. Surface the CLI's follow_up string verbatim (typically: "Run python install.py to install/uninstall the systemd unit, then restart claude-hooks-daemon."). This is NOT something the skill does automatically — unit changes need user consent.

If smart-start, offer idle timeout: 5min / 30min (default) / 2h / Other. Then set-idle-timeout <seconds>.

Subflow C — Effort tier

Two-round dialog (AskUserQuestion caps at 4 options, 7 tiers exist). First: family (base single-model | x multi-model). Then: pick within family. Show the (N) budget suffix in labels.

• base: low (1) / medium (3) / high (5) / max (25)
• x: xmedium (3) / xhigh (5) / xmax (25) / back to base

Then set-effort <tier>. When picking an x-tier with empty researcher extra_models, surface:

Note: x-tiers fan out the researcher across extra_models, but your researcher has none configured. Behaves like the corresponding base tier until you add extras via Subflow A.

Don't block the change.

Subflow E — Coder per-language routing (task #111)

When the user picks "4. Coder routing" from the top-level menu:

1. Show current state. Run

   claude-consultants config coder list --cwd "$(pwd)"
   

   Render a compact view of coder.default_route + each routes_by_language entry. Mention if coder is disabled (the routing is configured but the role itself won't fire until enabled via Subflow A → set-role coder --enabled true).

2. Top-level routing question. AskUserQuestion:

   • Edit global default route — change the model used when a language has no per-language entry.
   • Edit a per-language entry — pick one of the existing entries to change its primary/fallback.
   • Add a new language entry — for a language not currently in the map (e.g. typescript, java).
   • Remove a per-language entry — language falls back to the global default after removal.

3. For "Edit global default" / "Edit a per-language entry":

   • Sub-question: "Change primary, fallback, or both?"
   • For each chosen field: AskUserQuestion with the candidate model list. Source the list via claude-consultants config list-models and rank by: (a) the user's existing per-role models, (b) the bench winners for this language (when known), (c) recent models by modified_at. Cap at 3 + Other (custom).
   • Forward to:

     claude-consultants config coder set-default --primary <m> [--fallback <m>]
     claude-consultants config coder set <lang> --primary <m> [--fallback <m>]
     

     Pass --fallback "" (empty string) when the user wants to clear the failover on an existing entry — the CLI treats None as "keep current" and "" as "explicit clear".

4. For "Add a new language entry":

   • AskUserQuestion: which language? Offer the keys from LANGUAGE_BY_EXTENSION.values() minus existing entries: c, cpp, csharp, go, python, rust, typescript, javascript, java, kotlin, swift, ruby, php, shell. Cap at 3 + Other (custom slug).
   • Then primary/fallback as in step 3.
   • Forward to claude-consultants config coder set <lang> --primary <m> --fallback <m>.

5. For "Remove a per-language entry":

   • AskUserQuestion: which entry? List existing keys + Back.
   • Confirm with the user before sending (this is a destructive change to the routing) — show what the language will fall back to (the global default's primary+fallback). The operation is idempotent (no error on repeat), but the confirmation is for the human, not the API.
   • Forward to claude-consultants config coder unset <lang>.

6. Loop back to step 1 after each successful change.

Failover semantics primer (mention once, on the first change):

The coder's failover chain is primary → fallback → tombstone. On any primary failure (raised exception, zero files written, empty final message) the lane retries the same task with the fallback model. After both fail the lane tombstones with both model names recorded. The global default is not a third retry — it only fills in when a language has no per-language entry.

After every change

Re-run config show and re-render the status block. Return to step 2's menu unless the user picked Done.

Per-project overrides

Mention only when the user asks: set-role ... --project --cwd "$(pwd)" edits the per-project TOML (<project>/.claude-hooks/consultants.toml) instead of the user-global (~/.claude/consultants-config.toml). Skill defaults to user-global.

---

---

Coder role (opt-in, off by default)

The coder role is a code-writing specialist that fires only when (a) cfg.roles.coder.enabled = true AND (b) the planner declares the question requires writing new code or files (it emits "requires_code_generation": true + a coder_tasks list). For audits / analyses / decisions the role stays inert — same plan shape as v1.

What it does. One coder lane per declared task; each lane gets the plan + researcher findings + the specific task, runs a short agent loop with a single write_file tool, and writes files inside a per-session sandbox at <cwd>/.claude-hooks/consultants/<sid>/coder-out/. The synthesizer references the on-disk paths in its answer.

Sandbox caps. 50 KB per file, 1 MB total per lane, 16 files max per lane (configurable via the [coder_limits] TOML block). Exceeding any cap returns an inline error to the model so the next iteration self-corrects. The path guard rejects absolute paths and traversal — write_file("/etc/passwd", ...) and write_file("../escape", ...) both error before touching disk.

When to suggest enabling it. A user asking "Write me X" or "Add a CLI flag for Y" benefits from the role. A user asking "Explain how X works" / "Why is Y broken" / "Audit Z" does NOT — keep the role off. The planner's gate is the safety: with the role on but the question analytical, the planner emits no coder_tasks and the graph routes around the lane (zero coder cost). With the role off, the gate isn't even offered.

Enable / disable.

claude-consultants config set-role coder enabled=true

(or interactively via /consultants config → Edit a role → coder → Toggle enabled.) The pre-M11b default model is the project-global DEFAULT_MODEL; users may pick a different model per role via the same dialog.

---

Autonomous control (in-flight consultation)

The v2 engine exposes seven HTTP routes + matching CLI subcommands for mid-flight session control. Use these when the user wants to nudge a running consultation rather than start over. All seven verbs operate on the session's sid and return JSON. The CLI calls are thin wrappers around the HTTP endpoints — choose whichever fits the surrounding context. Defaults to silent — do NOT poll-spam these; use only when the user's request implies it.

state — peek live state

claude-consultants state <sid>

Returns the current StateSnapshot: status, current_node, research[], critique, partial_synthesis, runtime_control, interrupt_state. Use to answer "what's the council doing right now?" without scraping the SSE stream. Returns 410 when the session has been closed (idle reap), 404 when the sid is unknown.

inject — add context mid-flight

claude-consultants inject <sid> --role researcher -m "Also consider GDPR."
claude-consultants inject <sid> --role any -f /tmp/extra-notes.md

Append a Doc to additional_context. The next node entry for the target role surfaces it in the prompt. Use when the user realizes the council needs a fact they forgot to seed — e.g. "tell the researcher to also check the staging branch" or "remind the synthesizer to call out latency cost". --role any is the safe default if you don't know which role should see it.

control — mutate runtime_control mid-flight

claude-consultants control <sid> --time +30m
claude-consultants control <sid> --max-rounds 5 --confidence 0.7
claude-consultants control <sid> --strictness strict
claude-consultants control <sid> --disable critic

Each flag merges into runtime_control via the shallow-merge reducer; unspecified fields stay put. --time +30m is parsed as a relative bump on top of deadline_ts (so "30 minutes from now"). --enable and --disable mutate enabled_roles via a snapshot-then-subtract (the CLI reads GET /state first to build the diff). Use to grow / shrink the budget after seeing the plan or first researcher round.

pause + resume — HITL approval flow

claude-consultants pause <sid> --reason "let me read the draft"
# ... user reads /state, optionally injects ...
claude-consultants resume <sid>
claude-consultants resume <sid> --value '{"approve": true}'

pause flips runtime_control.pause_requested so the next node entry calls interrupt(). resume clears the interrupt and schedules a Command(resume=value) re-invoke. --value is forwarded as the resume payload (JSON-decoded if parsable, otherwise a literal string). A dynamic interrupt set by the synthesizer's low-confidence policy returns the same way.

cancel — abort with cleanup

claude-consultants cancel <sid>
claude-consultants cancel <sid> --discard-partial

Cooperative drain. --discard-partial also deletes the checkpointer file. Use when the user has changed their mind about the question. Idempotent on completed sessions (200, no-op).

events — tail the SSE stream

claude-consultants events <sid>
claude-consultants events <sid> --since 47

Tail the recorder's runtime_events table as Server-Sent Events. --since replays from a known event_id (useful when reconnecting after a network blip). Each event lands as one JSON line on stdout. Heartbeats every 15 s keep the connection alive through quiet research rounds.

When to autonomously call these

Sparingly. The bar is: the user's current turn implies a mid-flight intervention. Examples:

• User says "the council is taking forever — give it 30 more min" → control --time +30m.
• User says "wait, also tell the researcher to check the staging branch" → inject --role researcher -m "...".
• User says "cancel that, I want to ask something different" → cancel --discard-partial then start the new ask.
• User says "show me what the council has so far" → state; pretty-print the partial_synthesis + research[].

Don't call these to "check in" on a running session — the ask-flow's normal status poll already does that.

---

Skill-eval — pick the right model for a role

When the user asks "is X a good model for the coder role?" or "should I switch from kimi to qwen3-next for code generation?", the answer comes from the Consultancy Skill-Eval Protocol — the canonical evaluation procedure for any candidate consultant model. The full methodology lives at docs/consultants-skill-eval-protocol.md; the running ledger of every score lives at docs/consultants-skill-eval-baselines.md.

The protocol runs three sub-suites (one is shipped today, two are scheduled):

• coder — 8 HumanEval-style questions × candidate models; rubric is pass_rate ≥ 70% AND avg_quality ≥ 3.5.
• stall (M11a, not yet shipped) — inter-token cadence on hard questions; informs M3 stall thresholds.
• tool_executor (M11c, not yet shipped) — multi-tool research tasks; gates the M6 default-on bit.

Invoke via CLI (preferred — wraps the bench scripts):

claude-consultants skill-eval coder --dry-run \
    --models kimi-k2.6:cloud,qwen3-next:cloud,glm-5.1:cloud,gemma4:31b-cloud

Dry-run validates the harness end-to-end without cloud spend (~10 s). For a real evaluation:

claude-consultants skill-eval coder --live --accept-cost \
    --models <comma-separated> \
    --ollama-base http://192.168.178.2:11433 \
    --judge-model kimi-k2.6:cloud

Then render the report:

python benchmarks/consultants/analyze.py \
    benchmarks/consultants/results/<date>/coder/trials.jsonl

The report.md applies the rubric and recommends a default. If a new model qualifies, append its score to the baselines ledger — that's how we accumulate evidence over time.

When to suggest running the eval:

• The user is considering a new model for a consultant role.
• The user reports the council's code-generation output regressed ("it used to write better Python last week") — re-run the eval to see if the proxy upstream shifted.
• A new model just landed on the cloud upstream and you want to know whether to recommend it.

When NOT to suggest:

• For a single ambiguous result. Skill-eval works on an 8-question denominator; one bad answer to the user's actual question isn't enough signal.
• For non-consultant decisions (general-purpose model picks). The protocol is scoped to the consultant roles.

---

Failure handling (all verbs)

• CLI returns {"ok": false, ...} → surface the error verbatim.
• engine_python not found / connection refused on :38096 → the consultants service isn't running. Suggest systemctl --user status claude-hooks-consultants (always-on mode) or python install.py if the user hasn't installed yet.
• Role-specific failure (e.g. researcher failed: ...) → surface role + error; suggest /consultants config to switch the role's model.
• Cloud upstream flap → council is particularly retry-prone (4 roles × multiple turns); the resilience layer in the proxy retries automatically, but exhausted budgets surface here. Surface plainly and offer /consultants followup <failed_sid> to chain off the failed session (researcher + critic work is usually salvageable).

Reference

• Deep config schema, role-by-role behavior, effort-tier semantics, per-project vs user-global resolution: see docs/consultants.md.
• Live engine status & metrics: claude-consultants config show (CLI summary) or curl http://127.0.0.1:38096/health (raw).
• Past sessions on disk: .claude-hooks/consultants/<sid>/.

/consultants vs /get-advice

• /get-advice is a single-shot conversation with one model. Use it when one good model + the project tools can answer the question in a single back-and-forth.
• /consultants is a multi-agent pipeline. Reach for it when the question benefits from a researcher actively grounding in project files AND a critic challenging the evidence before the final answer.